The FBI is now investigating whether Raven’s American staff leaked classified U.S. Stroud’s account of the targeting of Americans was confirmed by four other former operatives and in emails reviewed by Reuters. The hacking of Americans was a tightly held secret even within Raven, with those operations led by Emiratis instead. “It would be very illegal,” said Rhea Siers, former NSA deputy assistant director for policy. networks or stealing the communications of Americans. The rules, however, are clear on hacking U.S. Though it’s illegal to share classified information, there is no specific law that bars contractors from sharing more general spycraft knowhow, such as how to bait a target with a virus-laden email. national security lawyers say the laws guiding what American intelligence contractors can do abroad are murky. While this activity raises ethical dilemmas, U.S. “There’s a moral obligation if you’re a former intelligence officer from becoming effectively a mercenary for a foreign government,” said Bob Anderson, who served as executive assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation until 2015. intelligence community, leaving to work as an operative for another country is seen by some as a betrayal. The Raven story also provides new insight into the role former American cyberspies play in foreign hacking operations. The Reuters investigation is the first to reveal the existence of Project Raven, providing a rare inside account of state hacking operations usually shrouded in secrecy and denials. Various reports have highlighted the ongoing cyber arms race in the Middle East, as the Emirates and other nations attempt to sweep up hacking weapons and personnel faster than their rivals. When an ISIS-inspired militant stabbed to death a teacher in Abu Dhabi in 2014, the operatives say, Raven spearheaded the UAE effort to assess if other attacks were imminent. Former Raven operatives say the project helped NESA break up an ISIS network within the Emirates. The UAE has said it faces a real threat from violent extremist groups and that it is cooperating with the United States on counter-terrorism efforts. The UAE’s Embassy in Washington and a spokesman for its National Media Council did not respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment. Details of the Karma hack were described in a separate Reuters article today.Īn NSA spokesman declined to comment on Raven. The operatives utilized an arsenal of cyber tools, including a cutting-edge espionage platform known as Karma, in which Raven operatives say they hacked into the iPhones of hundreds of activists, political leaders and suspected terrorists. The sources interviewed by Reuters were not Emirati citizens. Interviews with nine former Raven operatives, along with a review of thousands of pages of project documents and emails, show that surveillance techniques taught by the NSA were central to the UAE’s efforts to monitor opponents. government hackers have employed state-of-the-art cyber-espionage tools on behalf of a foreign intelligence service that spies on human rights activists, journalists and political rivals. The story of Project Raven reveals how former U.S. “I am working for a foreign intelligence agency who is targeting U.S. Before long, Stroud and other Americans involved in the effort say they saw the mission cross a red line: targeting fellow Americans for surveillance. But in 2016, the Emiratis moved Project Raven to a UAE cyber security firm named DarkMatter. Stroud had been recruited by a Maryland cyber security contractor to help the Emiratis launch hacking operations, and for three years, she thrived in the job. Stroud and her team, working from a converted mansion in Abu Dhabi known internally as “the Villa,” would use methods learned from a decade in the U.S intelligence community to help the UAE hack into the phones and computers of its enemies. intelligence operatives recruited to help the United Arab Emirates engage in surveillance of other governments, militants and human rights activists critical of the monarchy. She had joined Project Raven, a clandestine team that included more than a dozen former U.S.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |